doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Another front opens against lead shot

From the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/science/earth/03lead.html?ref=todayspaper

Here are some excerpts from the article:


Groups Seek Ban on Lead in Sporting Ammunition
By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: August 3, 2010

Go to Blog As the American military begins to embrace “green bullets,” environmental groups are pushing state and federal officials to ban the use of lead in hunters’ guns and fishermen’s tackle.

Their goal is to protect both the animals that scavenge the carcasses of hunted prey and the people who consume meat from hunting expeditions.

On Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity and the American Bird Conservancy plan to file a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency seeking a comprehensive nationwide ban on lead-based sporting ammunition and fishing tackle.

The petitioners argue that “it is now incontrovertible fact” that lead fragments in the bodies of animals shot with lead bullets or lead pellets are “a serious source of lead exposure to scavenging animals” and a health risk to humans who eat hunters’ kills.


And

But hunting organizations dispute the dimensions of the problem. Larry Keane, the vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said the petition was “fundamentally flawed as a matter of science.”

“You don’t manage harm to individual animals,” he said in an interview. “Wildlife biologists manage wildlife populations.”

They are trying that silly tack here in Britain at the moment. I've eaten more than my fair share of shot game without any problems. If environmental lead was such a problem then where are all the dead and dying birds and animals that live around long established clay shooting grounds? Trouble is these things are started by groups that are anti hunting as they know that this would just about finish most types of shooting. Steel is not much good and cannot be used in older guns. If that left Bismuth then the world production would not be able to cater for the demand and cartridges would become prohibitively expensive; same with tungsten polymer. We would be back to hunting with a catapult and pebbles; until that was banned also. Lagopus.....

This is just a left wing political ploy based on voodoo science like most of their tactics. The socialists* managed to get a trap & skeet operation shut down that overlooked Lake Michigan in Chicago when I was unfortunate enough to have to live there. They claimed the shot was poisoning the fish and waterfowl. After, unfortunately , the range shut down a study was done that determinted the lead had sunk 10 feet into the mud at the bottom of the lake. Environmental impact? NONE.
*What these left wing scum really didn't like was the fact that thousands of people driving on Lake Shore Drive were seeing dozens of people at a time peacefully enjoying the use of firearms. Fortunately shorty after that Jim Thompson, who was Governor at the time, grandfathered all other shooting facilities in the State.
Get out and vote this November!!
Jim

Mr. Keane has it exactly right. I did a two part piece on lead in Pointing Dog Journal. First part is in the current issue. Second part--on the "secondary" threat of lead (to animals--including humans--who consume meat with lead pellets or fragments)--is in the Sept/Oct issue.

Larry,

Any chance the New York Times would print your articles as rebutal!!!!! Probably not as they will not show what the New York Times wants to show.

tim

We have the same problem here in Arizona:

If you get your news about the critical Illegal Immigration problems we have only from reading the Arizona Republic you'd get the impression we citizens are tormenting some harmless and innocent Mexicans who do no wrong.
Jim

Tim--I wish!

The question that needs to be asked is, which scavenging animals are endangered due to lead shot or fragments? One reason we got the lead shot ban on waterfowl was that eagles were dying from eating crippled ducks and geese that went unrecovered. Eagles are still dying of lead poisoning today, mostly as a result of eating crippled and unrecovered deer. But the difference is, as a result of the ban on DDT and the CURRENT lead shot restrictions on waterfowl, eagles are no longer endangered as a species. Iowa went from something like 2 nesting pairs of eagles to hundreds of nesting pairs, with thousands of eagles in the state at certain times of the year. Other than the condor, I don't know of a single species that's endangered due to lead.

But it's a convenient back door way of attacking hunting and shooting.

The TOFU eaters always seem to have a scheme to stop hunting. Go back to the flawed 1950's study on lead shot poisoning and see the lack of proper science. How many thousands of waterfowl have died because of wounds inflicted by the ineffective steel shot. I quit hunting waterfowl with steel because of all the wounded birds that I saw drop a half a mile away. Hopefully someone will get the truth out which is hard with the liberal no nothing media.

Correct.........

Conservative Vegetarian:......"Just does not eat meat".....

Liberal Vegetarian:......"Does not eat meat, BUT wants all meat banned permanently".....
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Ahhhh, the twisted views of the liberal mind, a real sickness.....always trying to force their views on all of us............."the sissy parade continues".......

What gets me is the way we go on about the science in these matters. Science has almost nothing to do with making public policy. The world goes nuts because Canada allows killing of seals or keeps forests alive so we can cut them when they're marketable and green. The antis aren't committed to any particular political agenda, liberal or conservative; the boycott of our fish from killing seals comes from every ray of the political spectrum. It seems everyone thinks they know everything about natural resources when generally they know little. The political polarization that has the US tied in knots is analogous. I doubt there ever was a time when we saw clearly, thought rationally or acted disinterestedly on public issues but branding and imputing motives makes it difficult to impossible for progress on anything.